Baadassss Gangstas: the Parallel Influences, Characteristics and Criticisms of the Blaxploitation Cinema and Gangsta Rap Movements

Baadassss Gangstas: The Parallel Influences, Characteristics and Criticisms of the Blaxploitation Cinema and Gangsta Rap Movements Dustin Engels Journal of Hip Hop Studies, Volume 1, Issue 1, Spring 2014, pp. 62 ‐ 80 BAADASSS GANGSTAS . Baadassss Gangstas: The Parallel Influences, Characteristics and Criticisms of the Blaxploitation Cinema and Gangsta Rap Movements Dustin Engels Abstract Serving as two of the most visible African American cultural movements, blaxploitation cinema and gangsta rap played essential roles in giving African American artists an outlet to establish a new black identity for mainstream audiences. After exploring the similarities between the cultural and economic conditions that spawned both movements, this essay examines the parallel techniques by which the preeminent entries in both genres established themselves as culturally relevant for African American audiences. These techniques included a reliance on place and space to establish authenticity, as well as employing African American myths and folklore such as the Signifying Monkey and the badman. By establishing themselves as mainstream representations of black identity, the harshest critics and staunchest defenders of both movements came from within the African American community, a clear indication of the important role each would play in establishing a new era of black representation in popular culture. In October 2012, New Orleans rapper Curren$y released a mixtape online for his fans entitled Priest Andretti. Taking its name from the main character of the 1972 blaxploitation film Super Fly, this fourteen-track mixtape frequently pays homage to the blaxploitation movement that occurred in the early 1970s by incorporating clips from Super Fly throughout, as well as including songs entitled “Max Julien” (star of the 1973 film The Mack) and “Cleopatra Jones” (title character of the 1973 film Cleopatra Jones). Two months later, in December 2012, director Quentin Tarantino released his newest film, Django Unchained. The film, which employs many of the same tropes commonly seen in blaxploitation cinema, includes a soundtrack containing an original song written by Rick Ross, “100 Black Coffins,” as well as a mash-up of James Brown’s “The Payback” and 2Pac’s “Untouchable” entitled “Unchained.” The animated series Black Dynamite, a parody of blaxploitation cinema based on the critically acclaimed 2009 film of the same name, recently featured rapper Snoop Dogg (aka Snoop Lion) voicing a formidable villain on the show. Even though the blaxploitation cinema movement ended nearly 30 years ago, these recent examples serve as a clear illustrations of the continued cultural relevance of blaxploitation and offer an intriguing look at the persisting and complex relationships and intersections between blaxploitation cinema and rap music. In the years following the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans attempted to establish a cultural identity within a society that frequently continued to ostracize and systematically neglect them. By the late 1960s, angered by the lack of progress JOURNAL OF HIP HOP STUDIES . toward “first-class citizenship,” many African Americans began calling for the abandonment of non-violent protest and adoption of a militant resistance to white culture. The rise of the Black Power Movement resulted in many African Americans calling for the establishment of a separate, self-defined black culture, which included Black Art.1 Artistic depictions in popular culture served as one of the potentially visible and influential ways in which the African American community could create a controlled image of black culture that reflected a self proclaimed identity while simultaneously illustrating the community’s continued struggles. Through film, music, television and various other outlets, African American artists began using their mediums to appeal directly to black audiences in an attempt to spawn cultural movements that would display and bring to the forefront the cultural, social and economic struggles of the African American experience. Two of the more visible African American movements that have occurred in popular culture over the past 50 years are the blaxploitation cinema explosion of the early 1970s and the gangsta rap movement that took hold nearly two decades later. While gangsta rap has proven to be a more durable and influential movement, blaxploitation cinema played a pivotal role in providing African American artists a means to redefine black representation in mainstream popular culture, with the potential to result in either empowering or problematic impacts for the community. Analyzing the genesis of these two subgenres, one can easily identify many similarities in the qualities and characteristics used to classify works as either blaxploitation films or gangsta rap. Because early blaxploitation films and gangsta rap served as parallel subgenres established by African American artists attempting to establish a new identity reflecting the social, political and economic issues impacting the African American experience (even in a metaphorical sense) within their respective mediums, cultural critics and mainstream consumers identified and classified the movements by many of the same qualities and characteristics upon their inception. Likewise, both modes of expression endured much of the same praise and criticisms from within the African American community as they served as battlegrounds for defining black identity in America. In this essay, I first plan to explore the cultural and economic circumstances that spawned each movement and the inherent similarities in both. Next, I will examine gangsta rap and blaxploitation’s shared reliance on place and setting as well as African American myth and folklore as a means to establish cultural relevance for African American audiences. Finally, I will consider the polarized responses to these movements within the African American community, and more importantly, how these reactions serve to highlight the important and complex role these movements would play in establishing a mainstream cultural identity for African Americans. Two Movements Born 1 Mark A. Reid, “The Black Action Film: The End of the Patiently Enduring Black Hero,” Film History 2, no. 1 (1988): 23-24. BAADASSS GANGSTAS . As with many cultural phenomena, it can be difficult to strictly define and classify blaxploitation cinema. However, in his book Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide, author Josiah Howard gives a reasonably straightforward and concise definition that broadly describes the movement. He defines blaxploitation as “1970s black-cast or black-themed films…created, developed and most importantly, heavily promoted to young, inner-city, black audiences.”2 For the purposes of this analysis, the three main films being discussed as the forebears of the blaxploitation movement are Melvin Van Peeble’s Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971), Gordon Parks’ Shaft (1971) and Gordon Parks Jr.’s Super Fly (1972). Not only are these films most relevant to the discussion because of the important role they played in establishing the trends and initiating the explosion of black-centered films in the early 70s, but they also all share the distinction of being directed by African American filmmakers, a trend that did not necessarily persist for the duration of the movement but plays a crucial role in analyzing how black artists used their mediums to appeal to black audiences and create a new mainstream identity. In order to engage in a meaningful analysis of blaxploitation cinema, one should first understand the conditions and circumstances under which the movement began. Ultimately, blaxploitation cinema would prove to be a product of the combined effects of changes in the political and social structures affecting African Americans and a financially vulnerable Hollywood in desperate search of an economic boom. Entering the 1970s, African Americans emerged from a decade that had produced the first African American movie star, Sidney Poitier. As the first African American actor to win a Best Actor Academy Award (for 1963’s Lilies of the Field) and the most successful box office star of 1967 (the year he acted in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and To Sir with Love, three box office hits), Poitier had become a full-fledged movie star, and his widespread popularity (including among white audiences) meant he served as a mainstream representation of the cultural image of the African American community. However, many African Americans resented Poitier’s success, believing his popularized filmic image promoted black emasculation and assimilation into white society.3 Black audiences showed increasing dissatisfaction with the narrowly defined roles he portrayed in these films, and as author William R. Grant IV writes in his book Post-Soul Black Cinema: Discontinuities, Innovations and Breakpoints, 1970-1975, “The Poitier persona was obviously unable and incapable of addressing the growing desires and expectations for a liberated and empowered Black male able to reflect, articulate and represent the changing times.”4 2 Josiah Howard. Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide. (Guildford: FAB Press, 2008), 7. 3 Mia Mask, Contemporary Black American Cinema: Race, Gender and Sexuality at the Movies. (New York: Routledge, 2012), 7. 4 William R. Grant IV, Post-soul Black Cinema: Discontinuities, Innovations, and Breakpoints, 1970- 1995. (New York: Routledge, 2004), 32. JOURNAL OF HIP HOP STUDIES

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